Jackson Jambalaya

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." — Upton Sinclair, 1934Sinclair was writing about California politics in the 1930s. He could have been writing about Mississippi River Commission (MRC) politics today. Its Commanding General’s next star (salary) may depend on your not understanding Mudberg.

Mudberg is a sediment plug in the river that reduces the Mississippi’s discharge to the Gulf (about 23% less when above flood stage) and makes floods inside the levees higher, longer, and more destructive. The MRC supervises the Corps of Engineers (Corps). The Corps caused Mudberg. The Generals understand that but don’t want you to understand that — and hold the Corps responsible.

So if you own land inside the levees, they tell you to blame your floods on Nature’s 8% more rain. They don’t tell you about Mudberg’s 23% less drain and its damage to a million acres inside the levees from Baton Rouge to above Greenville. Or that the Corps predicts worse floods are coming. Or that those floods won’t be as bad if the Corps dredges Mudberg — which it has no plans to do.

The Generals also understand that Mudberg will cause a catastrophe if it makes the Mississippi River change course (avulse) to the Atchafalaya. Here’s what the Corps brochure on the Old River Complex says about that:

“If the Mississippi changed course, it would turn the present river channel into a saltwater estuary, and the effects on southern Louisiana would be catastrophic. Corporations have constructed billions of dollars worth of petrochemical plants, refineries, grain elevators, and fossil fuel and nuclear electrical generating plants, most of which depend on fresh water for their manufacturing process, along both banks of the Mississippi River. Also, cities below Baton Rouge, including New Orleans, would be hard-pressed to find drinking water.”

The Mississippi started to change course in 1950. Congress told the Corps to stop it. That’s like telling the Corps to stop gravity. Gravity makes the river find a steeper channel to the Gulf when the old channel silts in. That happens every thousand years or so. It’s happening now. The Atchafalaya is steeper.

The Corps couldn’t stop gravity. But it built a control structure in 1963 at the juncture of the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya to delay its effects. And it has for 63 years despite a close call in the 1973 flood. It was damaged in that flood, repaired, and expanded in 1980. That structure is the Old River Control Complex (ORCC), located just below the MS-LA state line. In 1990, the Corps changed its operation to favor a small hydroelectric plant. That change caused Mudberg to form.